Poll

EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine — Medway’s town leaders and residents are for it, Millinocket’s town leaders against, and on Tuesday local voters can say where they stand on a National Park Service feasibility study of Roxanne Quimby’s proposed 70,000-acre national park.

As part of a nonbinding referendum on the subject, voters can answer yes or no to the ballot question, “Are you in favor of supporting a feasibility study on a proposed 70,000 acre national park as presented by Roxanne Quimby?”

Selectmen opted to place the question on the ballot to help resolve the issue among themselves, said Mark Scally, chairman of the Board of Selectmen.

“We are saying that we are putting the interests of the citizens first. The board has differing views, so rather than act collectively we would rather know what the town feels,” Scally said Monday. “And then we would like to know what’s in the best interests of the area.”

Opponents fear that park service regulations would imperil the area’s forest products industries and that the park would swell far beyond 70,000 acres. They question a feasibility study’s credibility, doubt that the land itself is anything special and favor Snowe’s proposal of having another federal agency do a much broader economic study into which a park’s impact would be folded like a chapter in a book.

Scally hinted that he hoped East Millinocket leaders’ taking a position on the issue based on residents’ desires could lead to a compromise on the issue.

“It is her land, but I don’t believe in drawing lines in the sand. I think we have to leave the lines of negotiation open,” Scally said. “If she has an interest in doing something, maybe we can negotiate with her.”